《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter VII》第16节
The word “sensuous” had the effect of further disquieting Tom, but before he could invent a protest the coupé came to a stop, and Daisy signalled us to draw up alongside. “Where are we going?” she cried. “How about the movies?” “It’s so hot,” she complained. “You go. We’ll ride around and meet you after.” With an effort her wit rose faintly. “We’ll meet you on some corner. I’ll be the man smoking two cigarettes.” “We can’t argue about it here,” Tom said impatiently, as a truck gave out a cursing whistle behind us. “You follow me to the south side of Central Park, in front of the Plaza.” Several times he turned his head and looked back for their car, and if the traffic delayed them he slowed up until they came into sight. I think he was afraid they would dart down a side-street and out of his life forever. But they didn’t. And we all took the less explicable step of engaging the parlour of a suite in the Plaza Hotel. The prolonged and tumultuous argument that ended by herding us into that room eludes me, though I have a sharp physical memory that, in the course of it, my underwear kept climbing like a damp snake around my legs and intermittent beads of sweat raced cool across my back. The notion originated with Daisy’s suggestion that we hire five bathrooms and take cold baths, and then assumed more tangible form as “a place to have a mint julep.” Each of us said over and over that it was a “crazy idea”—we all talked at once to a baffled clerk and thought, or pretended to think, that we were being very funny …
注释摘要
乔丹说出“sensuous”这个词，像往滚烫的油锅里滴了一滴水。这是一个危险的、充满暗示的词，意思是“感官的、肉感的”，用来形容夏日午后的纽约——“过热而成熟的，仿佛各种奇异的果子都要落入你手中”——本身就把欲望、慵懒和某种道德边界松弛的氛围勾画出来。汤姆立刻被这个词刺中了，因为他正处在一场无法言说的恐慌里，任何与欲望有关的暗示都让他想起妻子和情妇这两条正…